The Hotel Room Perturbation
by windswept-dreams
Summary: Penny's thoughts during part of "The Love Car Displacement" that wasn't shown. Saying anything else would be a spoiler if you haven't seen the episode. K  for mild coarse language.


The Hotel Room Perturbation

**Author's note: Major spoilers for the Love Car Displacement and a minor one for the 21 Second Excitation. Just watched that one again, and felt like filling in some blanks. More of a drabble than a story. Rating`s for a few swears.**

"Shh, shh, shh," Penny tried frantically to sooth the scientist sleeping beside her. If sleeping was the right word. Whimpers had turned to dramatic shrieks in the last few seconds, jolting the waitress back awake. `_Smooth her hair...`_ Penny groggily remembered that much. She reached out to touch Amy's dark hair. Maybe soft kitty... hey, if it worked for Sheldon...

She yanked her hand back with a yelp. "Sonnova..." she hissed, shaking her palm to relieve the sting of teeth. A semi-circle of pink marks lined the side of her hand. "Bitch!" Penny snapped, seeing as her own screaming wasn't waking Amy Farrah Fowler, a bit of cathartic swearing wouldn't hurt. How the hell had Amy known where her hand was going to be?

The scientist seemed to relax after biting Penny's hand, thrashing a little less drastically in the sheets, the screams trailing off into unintelligible murmurs.

Bestie? _Beastie_ was more like it.

Having no sheets left on her side of the bed, Penny simply sat up and turned, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Amy's screams had shaken her awake, and the adrenaline would be hard to get rid of. She looked over to where Bernadette was already fast asleep; ear plugs in and eye mask on. There would be plenty of room there to crawl into bed with the other blonde.

Or...

Penny ran her tongue over her teeth as she thought it over. It wasn't like she had made a mental note of Leonard's hotel room on purpose when they were checking in. It just stuck in her mind. Randomly. It was a bad idea. A horrible idea. But just this once...

There was the safe route, just pop over and claim some blankets and a pillow from Bernadette, but... Penny's mind spun. _Maybe Amy would keep screaming, and the night terrors would continue until the morning. Maybe... yeah. Yeah, she definitely couldn't stay here. She hadn't brought good earplugs like Bernadette had._ She tried to convince herself, so she could convince Leonard.

She stumbled slightly but found her Uggs in the dark and pushed her feet into them. This was a horrible idea. But there was an excuse, and an out. She could be strong when she got there, see how she felt about it. About him. She wasn't going to try to seduce him.

She just missed him like hell right now.

Leonard hadn't invited her. Hadn't wanted her to come along as 'his' friend. Hadn't even mentioned the weekend, in fact. That shook her a little, and there was that hint of fear that Amy was right when she'd said so long ago that Leonard might move on; and Penny would be left... waiting. Wanting. A year or two ago he might have talked non-stop about this for a week or two, begging and cajoling her to agree to come. Now, nothing. It took a female version of Sheldon to think of her as a best friend, to offer her a relaxing spa weekend. She knew she was going to be a great actress someday when she could shrug it off like it didn't matter. She didn't want to admit it, but it sort of shook her. Oh well.

She snuck over to the door, slipping into the disturbingly bright hallway with as little noise as she could manage. _Bad idea, bad idea..._

But wasn't it just so _right _on another level?

She paused, almost turning back to her room instead of continuing down the hall. She was probably going to hurt him. She knew Leonard. If she gave him an in, he'd be enthusiastic about it. He always was. But he'd think that they were getting back together. Penny looked back at her room, then ahead to Leonard's - and Sheldon's.

With Sheldon there, nothing would happen. Nothing. She could use that as an excuse, pretend that it wasn't the fact that she missed him that was driving her back to his bed. And the next day she could escape to the spa, they could do their science stuff, and then they'd head back to Pasadena where she could just keep telling herself it was Amy Farrah Fowler's night terrors that were driving her down the hall and that it didn't mean anything at all.

It wasn't the way she missed his warmth, the way they could curl up so perfectly together. The way she'd gotten used to falling asleep listening to him breathe, the few times where she'd held her own breath in fear when his sleep apnea had stolen his breath away, the relief when he started inhaling again. It wasn't that she was tired of waking up alone, or that she didn't know how to apologize for being afraid of a serious relationship. It wasn't that she missed him...

It was Amy's night terrors.

So for this one night, she could tell herself that it was all about Amy and knock at Leonard's door with confidence, curl up on the bed beside him and not worry about anything _happening_ because Sheldon was there, and she could sink into happier memories without worrying about breaking his heart again...

Their door was just ahead. She took a deep breath and promised herself that it was just about giving Amy some space. As long as no one brought up Bernadette's bed, this would all be perfect...


End file.
